Mike Vrabel and his boys punched their ticket to the Divisional Round with a gritty 16-3 Wild Card win over the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday. It was their first postseason victory since the Tom Brady-Bill Belichick era ended. It was also the first playoff win by a Patriots QB not named Tom Brady in the last 35 years.
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Despite the records and achievements, the game was anything but flashy. It wasn’t even pretty, as after the first three quarters, the two teams combined for a total of just 12 points. Shockingly, it didn’t get any better afterward, as the Chargers went scoreless in the entire second half.
If you are an LA fan, this showing will take some time to sink in. But if you’re a Pats fan, the game must have only gotten better with time, and no one embodied that energy more than The Bronx rapper Cardi B herself. She’s currently dating the team’s star receiver, Stefon Diggs.
As the Patriots tightened their grip on the game, Cardi took to Instagram with a now-viral story. “That’s what I’m talking about. Take them to Tulum!” she said in the video, fully hyped. “They want to go to Tulum tonight on Delta. Put them on Delta,” the rapper hilariously added.
Cardi B watching the Patriots game tonight via Instagram stories. pic.twitter.com/oddp6YbMmN
— Fan Account | #BLM (@BardiUpdatess) January 12, 2026
It was a classic jab from the ‘I Like It’ hitmaker, asking the Chargers to go pack their bags and head to Mexico. And given how the game ended, the Chargers offense really may have felt doing the same.
LA’s quarterback Justin Herbert was under constant pressure all night, getting sacked six times while absorbing 11 hits. Moreover, the entire Chargers offense managed just 207 total yards and looked outmatched physically from start to finish.
Simply put, New England’s defense dictated everything, and Drake Maye was humble enough to give them all the plaudits for the win. “They won the game for us,” Maye said about the secondary. “I didn’t throw very well tonight. Need to be better,” he added.
This was a team win for the Pats, and that showed up clearly in the stat line of Maye (1 TD) and Diggs. The latter, in fact, had a really quiet night by his standards, catching just two passes for 16 yards. He and Maye barely combined for any big plays, but none of that seemed to bother Cardi B’s boyfriend.
The wideout, instead, shifted the attention to the fact that their magical run so far isn’t about individual numbers. “Nobody really liked us. Nobody really believed in us,” Diggs said after the win, explaining the message he shared with his teammates before kickoff.
He pointed to the Patriots’ youth, the outside doubt, and how the locker room has grown tighter as the season’s gone on. “Everybody’s been humbled. Everybody’s been unselfish. Everybody wants to win,” he said.
No wonder that mindset showed on Sunday, as even when Diggs wasn’t the focal point, he didn’t force it. The wideout played the second fiddle perfectly, allowing the Patriots’ defense to do its thing.
And if there is one thing that Tom Brady has always said is that putting the team above himself has been the key to reaching 10 Super Bowls. Boston has some exciting teams ahead.
